NOTES1) A woman in the village keeps a horse in one of the fields belonging to the estate so I fetch the manure from her with my tractor as and when I want it.

COMMENTS FROM THE POTTING SHEDMatron The water always reminds me of Guinness whenever I see it. Its very nice soft water to the touch too.Red Clover I don’t have too much trouble getting the seeds to germinate (except for Jacaranda trees) I think the worse problem at this time of the year is damping off after the seeds have germinated. You can treat the compost to stop this but I can’t say it works that well so I tend to water very carefully and pick out the seedlings as soon as I can then there is no more trouble. The best way to get seeds to germinate is to do as it says on the packet if you have one. Its seems the fashion these days to cover the seeds with Vermiculite or similar but I never find any advantage to this and just used fine compost being very careful not to bury the seeds too deep, just a thin covering is all it takes.Jeanette I thought just the same thing when you were getting ready for your spring too. I hope the weather keeps on getting better now, it’s been like spring today. I haven’t had my body warmer on all week and today I even took off my jacket. Of course after all those weeks on 2C max it now feels like a heat wave with temps of 12C although to you that would be cold no doubt.

OK, I've cheated to come to this post now because I'm mad about roses. Which ones do you grow? Do you like them, would you chose to grow the same ones yourself? - and I love the sheep art too, thank you!